‘The Surveyor and the Surveyed’ is a work of self realization. A series of self-portraits artwork started in 2006 is my self indulgence in reference to the identity crisis and my concern of the reality and illusion in this fast changing society.

The inspiration of this artwork came from the writing of John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’ (1972), quote: ‘men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object – an most particularly an object of vision: a sight.’ (p.g. 47). These thought provoking sentences had created the above painting.

Janice Chin
22 July 2011